


No Need to Hide It

by evilwriter37



Series: Discord Whump Prompts [2]
Category: DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Heather!whump, Whump, stabbed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 18:37:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilwriter37/pseuds/evilwriter37
Summary: Heather is stabbed during a battle and decides it's best to hide it from her friends.





	No Need to Hide It

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: hidden injury

Heather had been stabbed in the shoulder. Her left shoulder, to be exact. She and the rest of the Dragon Riders had been up against Dragon Hunters like they had been countless times, and their fighting had taken them onto the decks of the ships. Usually Heather was better than this, faster, but she’d become distracted by one of the dragons they’d been rescuing, and a Hunter had gotten a knife under her pauldrons and stabbed her. It hurt like nothing else, but she opted for pretending it wasn’t there. She could take care of it once they got back to Dragon’s Edge. There was no need to worry anyone, especially when there was still work to be done.

She and Astrid were below deck together on one of the Hunter ships, releasing the dragons that had been stored down below. After opening the heavy doors, the dragons had to be coaxed out and above deck, too afraid to leave on their own. Humans had gotten them into this mess, so they weren’t so eager to trust more of them.

Heather gritted her teeth as she swung open the next door. That hurt like Hel, but she couldn’t make a noise without alerting Astrid. She didn’t want her of all people to worry. 

Heather managed to open all the cell doors without making a sound of pain, though now her shoulder was screaming at her, and she could feel blood seeping through her clothes. Luckily, she wore black, so a stain wouldn’t be too obvious, but if someone looked for long, they would probably notice.

Now, flying away from the sinking ships, Heather cradled her arm to her abdomen. That helped her shoulder a bit. She just hoped no one would ask about the position.

No one did. They all seemed to be tired out after the fight, lost in their own thoughts. Heather was relieved once she got back to Astrid’s hut. She hoped Astrid would leave and she could take care of her shoulder on her own, but after some time, she realized that Astrid was just reclining on her bed, probably dozing.

_ Okay, don’t wake her. Do this silently. _

Heather gritted her teeth when she removed her pauldrons, her breaths hissing. That wasn’t enough to disturb Astrid though and bring her over.

Though, Heather lost her resolve when she began to remove the rest of her armor. A cry left her, and she clamped her hand over her shoulder, muttering a curse.

“Heather, are you okay?” Astrid was up, having sprung to her feet like she hadn’t even been relaxing. She came over, looked at the hand she had on her shoulder. “Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m fine.” Heather didn’t want to draw her hand away. There would be blood. She could take care of this on her own. She’d probably have to stitch it, but luckily she was right handed.

Astrid watched as blood seeped between Heather’s fingers, a frown pulling down her mouth. 

“No, you’re not. You got hurt and you didn’t tell anybody?” She removed Heather’s hand, looked at the blood that had seeped into her clothes. “How come?”

“I didn’t want anyone to worry,” Heather said.

Astrid sighed. “I would tell you that’s stupid but I’d probably do the same thing.” She began removing the rest of Heather’s armor without even asking if she wanted help. Heather admitted to herself that she was grateful for it.

“Here, sit down.” Astrid directed Heather to her bed. “Do you need help getting your shirt off?”

“Maybe,” Heather admitted.

“Okay.”

She did indeed need help getting her shirt off. She didn’t mind being partially naked around Astrid. It was hardly the first time she’d seen her nude. 

Once her bloody clothing was off, Astrid left to get the things she needed to stitch her up. All the Dragon Riders had gotten good at doing this, having no one on the island that was assigned to it. Astrid was good at stitching up wounds, as she had a strong stomach and small, nimble fingers.

Astrid came back with a bowl of water, a cloth, a needle, and thread. First, she cleaned the blood around the wound, which made Heather wince. It had been a hard stab, and she wouldn’t be surprised if she’d bruise from it.

Astrid spoke as she worked on threading the needle. “Next time you get hurt during a fight, you should tell someone. What if it had been something worse than this?”

Heather liked to think that she would have told someone had it been something worse, but she doubted that she would have.

“Yeah, I probably should. That means you too though.”

“What do you mean?”

“That time you got shot in the leg,” Heather told her. “And you lied to Hiccup.”

“Yeah, Hiccup  _ did  _ make it a rule to tell him if anyone got hurt.”

“Well, we can tell him after.”

Having her wound stitched up wasn’t fun, but Heather had dealt with worse injuries than this, had taken care of them all on her own. She was grateful for Astrid helping her.

Astrid cleaned the wound one more time, then went fishing through one of her chests. Heather heard bottles clinking.

“Here,” Astrid said, handing her a bottle of what looked to be alcohol. “Got this ale from Johann. It’s pretty good.”

Heather popped the cork off, took a long swig, then wiped her mouth on the back of her hand. She’d completely neglected putting a shirt on.

“Yeah, it is,” she confirmed. She gave Astrid a soft smile. “Thank you.”

“Of course. And here you thought you were going to clean this on your own.” She came over, put her hand on Heather’s uninjured shoulder. “You don’t have to do things on your own anymore, Heather. You have friends in all of us.”

Heather smiled and nodded. She knew that, but she tended to forget in her habit of doing things all on her own. It felt nice to have a reminder.

“Thank you, Astrid.” She took another swig from the bottle, planning on using the alcohol to numb the pain.


End file.
